Ganassi's No. 02 with Dixon, Kanaan, Larson and McMurray wins Rolex 24
Chip Ganassi's IndyCar and Sprint Cup Series drivers are pretty good at sports car racing.
The No. 02 team of IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and Sprint Cup Series drivers Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray won the Rolex 24 sports car race at Daytona Sunday afternoon, beating the No. 5 Action Express team which was driven by IndyCar driver Sebastian Bourdais at the finish.
The main competition for the No. 02, which was piloted by Dixon for the final three-plus hours, was the No. 10 of Wayne Taylor Racing. But WTR made a critical miscalculation late in the race and essentially handed the win over to the No. 02.
The No. 02 was leading with the caution came out for a crash with approximately 15 minutes to go. Presumably, the ensuing restart was going to give the No. 10, driven by Jordan Taylor, a chance to go after Dixon for one more shot at the win. However, Taylor was called to the pits during the caution and told he had to get out of the car.
Drivers in the Rolex 24 can drive four hours in a six-hour period and 14 hours overall. Taylor had driven the third-to-last stint for the No. 10 and Max Angelelli was apparently not in the car long enough in the second-to-last driver segment to satisfy the buffer requirement for Taylor. Had he driven the car to the finish, he would have gone over the limit and WTR realized it too late to fit it into their race strategy.
The No. 10 ended up third as Ricky Taylor drove it to the finish. The team has finished second, second and third in the past three Rolex 24s.
The Rolex 24 win is the sixth for Chip Ganassi Racing, which last won in 2013. The team was almost flawless throughout the entire event, as all four drivers posted stellar lap times and the car never fell lower than fourth as the race churned on throughout the night. The team pitted a race-high 34 times and thanks to the team's strategy and car's speed, it wasn't a detriment.
McMurray also became the third driver to win both the Daytona 500 and Rolex 24, joining A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti. Not terrible company.
"It's about Scott Dixon for me today," McMurray said. "He got in with three-and-a-half hours to go and just really did an amazing job. I'm so proud of him. Scott's become a good friend of mine and I'm honored to call him a friend."
The No. 3 Corvette, piloted by IndyCar Series driver Ryan Briscoe, former F1 driver Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, won the GT Le Mans Class. The No. 93 Dodge Viper won in GT Daytona and the No. 52 won in PC. The No. 54 dominated the PC class for the entirety of the race, however it was the cause of the final caution flag.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
